Earlier this week I introduced a very mint-y ice cream we made last weekend (recipe here and more recipes at Donvier.com), when I realized I had a mint plant that needed a severe trimming. This is how many garden-based recipes come to life. It's a matter of what you have, and especially what you have too much of (You can also use your local market - go organic!):
In early summer, look for:
- mint
- strawberries
In middle summer, look for:
- basil
- lemon verbena
In late summer, find some:
- peaches
- bluberries
You also need an ice cream maker! For small batches that you can recruit others to help with, I like the Donvier. It's small, the canister can be stored in the freezer for last-minute batches, and it's off-the-grid (silent, no motor.)
For larger batches, I like the 
We use the ice cream maker attachment that Kitchenaid makes. It works with any of their mixers. One less appliance to store. You put the special bowl in the freezer just like any other ice cream maker. It comes with a dasher attachment for the mixer.
We have the donvier and think it's the bomb!!
Kate,
Thanks for the tip about the Kitchen Aid attachment -- I just ordered one online!
Back home we call The White Mountain Ice Cream Maker a "sorbetiere". I recall these days when a young teenager I used to manually crank that baby filled with the mixture prepared by Mom untill my arms were about to fall off. But at the end the ice cream was so delicious( never had ice-cream so good) that all that pain was worth it.
With this piece, SKR did not motivate me to buy one of these and start making ice cream but she pushed me for a walk "a la recherche du temps perdu".
I just checked out the KitchenAid ice cream attachment. Very tempting. Does it really do the job?
I actually broke the mixing paddle on my Donvier, so I switched to the motorized Panasonic BH-941P. It does have a motor, but it's not bad. What you do is add the ingredients to it, turn it on, and set it in your freezer. That way I don't have to chill the cylinder for a day every time I want fresh ice cream. (You just have to wait for a few hours for it to finish.)
Search for it on Amazon (with hyphen) and you'll find it's always on massive sale.
I've been wanting to purchase an ice cream maker. Due to the lack of space in my freezer, I was looking at self-contained units such as the Musso, the Cuisinart, Lello, etc. Does anyone have any recommendations, experience with these self contained units?
Mango ice cream is amazing.
I have the kitchenaid, which works well, but is on the small side with regards to capacity. But for the cost, it's excellent.
All right... This is exactly what I was talking about over the winter when you AT people got on your urban high horses and started touting the evils of big fridges and the virtues of half-size units. Am I going to quibble here? You betcha. This is perhaps the thing I miss most about my previous homes... the space in the freezer for the "special bowl." It's top ten reasons I miss a bigger home, anyway. I've got two ice cream machines that are unfortunately lying fallow ever since I moved.
So now what? I suppose I could invest in a third ice cream maker like the white mountain or make a real investment for one of those fancy Italian jobs that makes the ice cream without the use of the freezer... but do I really need another appliance in the "pivoting perfection?" The zen of that place is to minimize to the best of my ability, in case you hadn't guessed...
I tell ya... you guys are pulling some kind of contradictory switcheroo here in terms of fridge sizes and ice cream makers you advocate. Please provide a spread of, or ask your audience for ideas for making ice cream in a home with a half fridge, and utilizing a tiny freezer that already has frozen blueberries and peaches for my morning oatmeal stored inside.
I used to make the most incredible vanilla bean ice cream (custard base), pistachio (milk base) and chocolate chip mint... for that I'd make real mint chips by melting chocolate, spreading a thin layer out on parchment paper, laying fresh mint leaves on the liquid chocolate, spreading another layer of the melted chocolate over that, and letting it freeze... once the custard was freezing bu still mixable, I'd take out the chocolate, break it into pieces, and mix it in the pieces... This was a recipe published in the Times back in like the summer of 2000.
Where's Hijiki when we finally need him...
You know, I do see through your ruse, AT...
You took note of my commentary on your snubbing the large fridges... Back in the winter... You made your OUTRAGEOUS claims that intellignet urban folk know better than to have large fridges, or something to that effect, and then you just stepped away from the issue, taking great delight in the storm of controversy that followed... You never followed up in print on any of that, but you guys took notes all along, and when the time was right... say, oh I dunno, once we had a few days of 90-degree weather... you pulled your little torturous stunt with these plugs for homemade ice cream and ice cream makers... rubbing it in the noses of the half-fridged who are plainly challenged to participate in the "new" seasonal trend...
Am I paranoid??? Am I embellishing for dramatic effect??? Of course I am.
But if I'm right... you're all calculating and very evil.
Phrases of the day--"urban high horses" and "in the noses of the half-fridged." I love it.
"Oh, let's make merry and skip around the ice cream maker waiting for the wholesome summer goodness to spring forth. In early summer, look for mint,strawberries... In middle summer, look for basil, lemon verbena In late summer, find some peaches, bluberries"
What.
Ever.
I've used the 1.5 quart Cuisinart model, and I like it a lot. Yes, you have to prefreeze the bowl, but I just left it in the freezer all the time.
(I wanted to try out some ice cream recipes, didn't have an ice cream maker, and so I made a beeline for the most recently married coworker. Did she have an ice cream maker? Oh yes she did - still in the box! I just returned it, and am about to buy one for myself!)
Ice cream is such an easy dessert, and makes a big impression. Last weekend I made pistachio, amaretto, and orange blossom honey ice cream for dinner with friends. I have some unfortunately overstewed rhubarb in the freezer that will probably get turned into ice cream soon. The Chez Panisse cookbooks have wonderful recipes; I've made honey lavender, and canteloupe, and SKGR has a boozy chocolate mousse recipe on her website that makes a kickass ice cream.
And yes Patrick - mango is the best. I will try mango anything. I made mango panna cotta a few weeks ago; so yummy! People just love little gelled things in cups.
I just had an amazing mango sorbet/gelato thing yesterday at an incredible Asian-fusion restaurant in Greenwich CT. I had to order the "Banana Spring Roll" to get it (the mango ice was only intended as a sidebar), but I managed just fine. ;)
Aside from the really intense flavor (think Peach on steroids) the COLOR of it literally jumped off the plate. Oh what a beuutiful plate a scoop of that and a scoop of SKGR's mint concoction would make!! Summer, in a bowl, for the eye and tongue!
faith--
with your freshly hand-scrubbed floors (I think that was you) and your home-made iced desserts, you have very lucky friends! ;)
aw thanks patrick. The floors are an anomaly though, I promise.
I go to this little house church - there's like 20 of us and kids - and we eat together every week so I get to dump my cooking on them. I swear, if weren't for them to try desserts out on, I would be so incredibly rotund. Besides, there's Thai, Japanese, Honduran, Cuban, Columbian, Guatemalan, and Indian ethnicities all represented, so we have some pretty incredible meals.
Spirituality at its finest. ;->
Faith, I'm glad to hear that you liked the Cuisinart model. A friend gave me one as a birthday gift, and I still haven't used it. My old freezer was too small (and I didn't even have one of those tiny fridges, Paul). I think I'm getting inspired to try it out now.
Thanks Fiona... I appreciate the backup there.
Try using the maker if you're lucky enough to have the possibility. It's a great treat.
You can also make great frozen drinks in them...
paul -
your posts crack me up. yeah, there's absolutely no way i could ever fit an ice cream maker bowl into my freezer--there isn't enough room for all the basic stuff as it is--and a kitchenaid mixer is also out of the question (no counter space for it). it's probably just as well, b/c when it comes to sweets my boyfriend is happily satisfied after a single modest serving (curse him!), whereas i have never managed to learn moderation. but all those recipes & descriptions sound wonderful...sigh...
Frozen drinks! NOW you're talking!! What time do we arrive? But we will arrive by cab. It is too @!#*^ hot to arrive on our urban high horses.
Well don't be showing up at the "Pivoting Perfection" without a generous selection of store-bought 'scream, 'cos there ain't no frozen drinks or ice cream goin' on with my small fridge...
Other drinks and libations we can work out...
BTW... I just heard AT will be throwing an ice cream party next... Can anyone confirm this rumor?
Just came across the July/August issue of Met Home, and it cites three ice cream makers...
Krups LaGlaciere #358, the Lello 4070 Gelato Junior (no bowl to freeze, oh ye of the small fridges), and the DeLonghi Ice Creamery 8500.
Prices are $75, $200 and $560, respectively. Or, were, 2004.
I've got two Glacieres... They have got the bowl component that has to fit in your (large)freezer... So you got two hundred bucks you can loan me?
I'll pay it all back at the First Annual AT Ice Cream Party!!!